Buildings, in particular office buildings, include electrical equipment and electrical connectors. Intricate pathworks of cables connect the electrical equipment and connectors. For example, cables connect electrical equipment located in a main equipment room to telecommunications equipment located in telecommunications rooms elsewhere in the building. Cables associated with the telecommunications equipment also extend into additional enclosures positioned in strategically placed zones throughout the different floors to establish electrical connections, such as ethernet connections.
These enclosures, called ‘zone boxes,’ house electrical equipment and connectors to receive cables extending from the telecommunications equipment, typically positioned in locations remote from the zone boxes. Additional cables may be extended out of zone boxes to other enclosures, such as data cables and racks for housing electrical equipment and to a mix of local devices, such as personal computers, printers, workstations and certain video cameras.
To prevent damage to electrical equipment and ensure the safety of its users and maintainers, a path to ground must be provided. The path to ground enables static electrical charges that may build up in the equipment during its operation to be safely discharge without harming a user or maintainer of the equipment. A maintainer of electrical equipment should maintain contact with a path to ground during maintenance and repair work in order to avoid the possibility of discharging static electricity into the equipment, potentially damaging the equipment.
There is a need, therefore, for a grounding apparatus that can be used as a path to ground for the electrical equipment and connections.